It's not possible to put a Subway restaurant within a safe walk of an apartment complex?
Outright impossible. You see, the US is far more spread out than Europe. You need only look at a map to notice the insurmountable geographic barriers that prevent a Subway from being built closer to an apartment building. It simply can't be done.
Wait, sorry, that's trains. You're talking about sandwiches. Let me check my notes...
But the street could have been designed in a way that was safe for a seven year old to cross. Instead of was designed with little to no thought of how anyone could be safe in that space outside of a car. It's demonstrably possible to facilitate both motor and foot traffic in a sane and safe way, but its not just slapping down five lanes and calling it a day.
Sure there could be. There could be other streets. Thinner, more accessible streets. This may surprise you, but there are other places in the world (crazy, I know), and they have streets that aren't super dangerous.